The death toll in the Philippines from Typhoon Haiyan has been revised up to 4,460 by the United Nations, as most of the millions of survivors still await aid a week after the massive storm hit the country.

The official confirmed death toll almost doubles yesterday's figure of 2,357, but still falls short of the 10,000 estimated by local authorities soon after the super typhoon struck last Friday.

Separately, town hall officials in the worst-hit city of Tacloban say the toll in the city alone has reached 4,000.

The UN says 11.8 million people have been affected by the typhoon, with 921,200 of those displaced.

President Benigno Aquino is under growing pressure to speed up the distribution of food, water and medicine to desperate survivors, and to get paralysed local governments functioning.

Statistics

UN statistics

Death toll

4,460

Displaced people

921,200

Children under 5 in evacuation centres

112,000

Pregnant/lactating women in evacuation centres

70,000

About 80 per cent of survivors have still received no help, with increasingly desperate locals resorting to looting shopping centres in search for food and water.

Bodies still litter the streets of Tacloban, while others lie putrefying in body bags outside the broken city hall, awaiting mass burials.

However the relief effort is gathering pace in the stricken region, with supplies now arriving and evacuations underway for residents.

Local officials say a lack of trucks and other forms of transport to support the flow of aid is their primary concern after the typhoon left many roads impassable, cluttered by debris from broken buildings.

But United States aircraft carrier USS George Washington, now positioned off the coast of devastated communities, will act as a huge floating base for helicopter operations.

The first power poles are also being repaired but electricity could still be months away.

You have no doubt been hearing a lot about the Paris Agreement and know that it pertains to climate change, but are too embarrassed at this stage to ask for an overall explanation of what it's all about.